CRICKET: Although seemingly loyal to its rich and conservative tradition, cricketers have always managed to throw in a little bit of fashion and quirkiness to their playing attire from time to time.
Pasty-faced Englishmen at the time of Douglas Jardine in the 1930s (and later) often sported functional but elegant neckerchiefs in the hot ovals of the Antipodes. Graham Gooch wore a series of strange, space-age pads and gloves while opening the batting for England during the 1980s. And these days, it is clear Shane Warne's trousers are a little more flared at the bottoms than is absolutely necessary.
And there is another addition to the whites or, in the one-day game, the coloured clothing, we have noticed creeping into the game more and more. And nowhere is this revolution more apparent than here in Ireland.
Skins is the trade name for a tight undergarment that was developed in the labs of Penn State University but is now in use on the playing fields of the world, from Bankstown to Balrothery. It is now rare to view an Ireland cricket, hockey or rugby team leaving the dressingrooms without at least some of them wearing skins.
The skin-tight leggings, long-sleeved shirts and shorts protrude from beneath the more regulation apparel, much to the chagrin of many purists among the spectators. But whatever about how they look, there is a much more practical reason for them.
According to Clontarf and Ireland all-rounder Trent Johnston, they are body-moulded garments made from a patented combination of microfibre and lycra, designed to have "a mild compression effect on the muscles and engineered so as to provide support and alignment to the muscles, significantly reducing the risk of injury during exercise".
Johnston is the skins distributor in Ireland and he has gradually been introducing them to cricketers and athletes from other sporting backgrounds.
Needless to say, you can't move in Clontarf CC without tripping over them and apparently, hurling legend DJ Carey bought the full range.
"A growing number of Australian representative sports teams, including cricket, rugby and soccer, are now wearing skins for training and recovery," says Johnston. "Ongoing studies of elite athletes prove that skins technology creates huge improvements in lessening the build-up of lactic acid immediately after periods of high exertion and allows more rapid return to normal levels during warm-down . . . The fabric keeps muscles warm without overheating as the body sweats."
Apart from the sports skins, there is a line of so-called recovery skins designed to be worn post exercise but they also have proven benefits in the reduction in incidences of deep vein thrombosis, which has frequent-flying Test umpires like Darryl Hair using them, as well as the more athletic within the game. Steve Waugh got into them following a bout of DVT sustained during a flight to Sydney from England. "Tugga" endorses the range and reckons it's "a significant breakthrough in world sport".
Personally, I'm comfortable with my own particular warm-down regime of a quick shower followed by several ales in O'Reilly's of Sandymount and I'm not big into wearing tights in any scenario, least of all on the playing field (give me a Douglas Jardine neckerchief any day).
But then again, it's good to know your options.
Team Ireland (men and women) will host a casino night at 8pm this Friday in the Clarion Hotel, Liffey Valley, as the final fund-raising event of the season. Tickets from Siobhán McBennett (siobhanmcbennett@eircom.net) or Adrian Birrell (adrian.birrell@gmail.com).
jfitzgerald@irish-times.ie
